Strike Back

S2 E20 Episode Twenty

Episode Twenty

Scott arrives at Bryant's apartment with a gun trained on his ex-lover. She makes a deal with him-if he'll get her out, she can get Section 20 to Knox. With Scott's help, they elude the special task force and flee the apartment, only to be stopped by Stonebridge. Scott asks an incredulous Stonebridge to trust him, and he does. Bryant comes clean to Scott that while she did set up Knox with MEND, the Nigerian terrorist group who wanted to purchase his weapons, it was always her intention to tell the CIA the location of the weapons. She gave up Christian Lucas's involvement with Section 20 in order to win Knox's trust. When Bryant learns the location of Knox's meet with MEND's leader Ozzy, she'll let Scott know. Despite their tortured history, Scott has no other option but to trust her.

In the back of a police car, Hanson feigns sickness. When the officers open the door to check on him, he attacks and kills them both.

Knox and Matlock enter MEND's headquarters, a rundown hotel housing a meth lab in a dangerous Johannesburg neighborhood. When they arrive, Bryant accepts her fee and leaves- dutifully texting Scott the location as she goes.

Knox and Ozzy negotiate new terms: Knox will pay MEND gets the nuclear weapons for five million dollars if they'll take credit for the detonation of the nuclear weapons. Ozzy is happy to annihilate Johannesburg, a city he hates, but as they negotiate, Section 20 and Radebe's men storm the building. Bullets fly in a dangerous firefight as they make their way towards Knox. Matlock shoots his and Knox's way free, but declines to kill a wounded Radebe on his way out. Scott, Stonebridge and Richmond face down a relentless assault and take control of the building, but Knox, Matlock and Ozzy have escaped.

Back at Knox's hideout, Matlock tells Knox this is not what he signed up for. He supported a coup of Zimbabwe's brutal and corrupt government, but detonating a nuclear weapon in a populated city is insanity. Before he can finish, Matlock is shot in the back by Hanson.

Baxter intercepts a call Knox makes to his daughter Ava, asking her to meet him in Cairo. He traces its origin, but by the time Section 20 arrives, Knox and Hanson are gone. They left only a few personal possessions behind, one of which is a map of Africa Knox's father was given by his old employers, Colonial Endeavour Bank, as well as Knox's passport. Back at the crib, Radebe interprets the significance of the map: the corrupt bank Knox's father worked for housed half the precious minerals of Africa, minerals that disappeared into Johannesburg's tunnels and were never seen again. Dalton realizes that the nukes must be hidden in those tunnels. And if Knox left his passport behind, he has no intention of going to Cairo, he was just trying to ensure Ava wasn't in the vicinity of the nuclear explosions.

Baxter matches a license plate connected to Knox with a vehicle parked by a J'Burg tunnel entrance. Scott and Stonebrige enter the tunnels using neutron detectors to measure increased radiation that will lead them to the weapons, but once underground they lose all comms. In the crib, Baxter locates Knox and Dalton races to him, but she is horrified when she sees Knox is carrying a dead man's trigger capable of remotely detonating the nukes.

Scott and Stonebridge discover the first weapon, but see that the bomb has been rigged to the other remaining nuke: both bombs must be disarmed at exactly the same moment or they'll detonate. The boys synchronize watches and agree to disarm one weapon each in exactly five minutes, but after they separate, Scott finds himself face to face with Ozzy and one of his men, while Stonebridge is ambushed by Hanson at the other bomb.

Above ground, Dalton unsuccessfully attempts to reason with Knox. Stonebridge and Hanson engage in a bloody battle in the tunnel, and Stonebridge shoots him before Hanson can detonate the nuke, but after forgiving the man who killed his wife. Scott dispatches Ozzy and his man, but hears the gunfire: should he disarm the bomb at the countdown? If Stonebridge isn't ready, the whole city could be decimated. Richmond tells Stonebridge about the trigger - they're running out of time, the weapons need to be disarmed now, but without comms in the tunnel there's no way to synchronize the diffusion. Stonebridge begins clanging on scaffolding with a piece of pipe: five times...then four....three... In his tunnel Scott recognizes the countdown and runs back to the bomb, disabling it just as Stonebridge does the same.

Knox pulls the trigger and nothing happens. Totally defeated, he shoots Dalton in the stomach before wandering dazed into a J'Burg crowd -- he stumbles around with his gun in the air, and is shot dead. Scott and Stonebridge race to the scene and look down impassively at Knox's corpse.

Scott and Stonebridge visit Dalton, recovering in the hospital. Dalton has offered her neck to top brass - it's the price to protect Whitehall from the embarrassment of admitting they provided Libya with the nuclear triggers that Knox used to build his weapons in the first place. Section 20 will live to fight another day.